Biblical Hebrew Forum

[goranson AT duke.edu]

A new article reports measurements of the ratio of chlorine and bromine in ink
from a Qumran Cave One manuscript and concludes that the ink was prepared with
water from or near the Dead Sea; the Qumran scroll was inscribed near the Dead
Sea.

Ira Rabin, Oliver Hahn, Timo Wolff, Admir Masic and Gisela Weinberg, "On the
Origin of the Ink of the Thanksgiving Scroll (1QHodayot a)," Dead Sea
Discoveries 16.1 (2009) 97-106.

Abstract (p. 97): "In this study we demonstrate the possibility to
identify the production area of the scrolls, coupling non-destructive
quantitative analysis of trace elements to spectroscopic investigation of the
inks. This approach, that allowed us to determine the Dead Sea area as origin
of 1QHodayot a, is of general validity."

Conclusion (p. 102) "Using the fingerprint composition of the water from the
Dead Sea region we could directly link the fragment, and consequently, the
production of 1QHodayot a to the Qumran area. Furthermore, our study of
organic components present in the carbon ink of this scroll indicates that 
gall
nuts extracts were used in the ink preparation as early as 1st century C.E."

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson/Essenes_&_Others.pdf
"Others and Intra-Jewish Polemic as Reflected in Qumran Texts"